Exercise 1: Typographic Awareness
Type is everywhere! We interact with letterforms hundreds, thousands 
of times a day. Every piece of type in this world is the product of a human hand or decision – whether it exists as hand-drawn graffiti on a wall,
a beautifully designed book, or is automatically generated from a human-engineered computer program. We exist in a dense typographic landscape.

Designers see this landscape differently than most people.

The average person reads messages all day long without thinking twice about their typography. A graphic designer, on the other hand, notices typography with a discerning eye. Designers really see type, beyond
 the automatic actions of looking or reading. Designers are highly aware of the visual and semantic subtleties of the letterforms they come in contact with. This sensitivity must be cultivated until it becomes habit.

Through informed, direct observation – paying attention to the world around you – you will develop a keen eye and taste for typography. This will inform your own work as a designer.

Assignment
For the next class, gather at least eight examples of typography found in your world. Bring in type that you have strong opinions about – either love or hate. Magazines, books, signage, packaging, ads, photos, and the internet are all possible sources. Foundry type specimens are not acceptable. Find type that is in use.

If you find an example on the computer, you must print it out for class. Any size, shape, or medium is acceptable as long as it is not on-screen.

Be prepared to speak briefly about your examples during class. What do you love? What do you hate? Why did this example catch your eye?

Deliverables
Eight or more examples of type that you have strong opinions about.


Exercise 2: Typographic Sensitivity
In essence, typography is about the relationship between form and counterform. Letters, words, lines, and paragraphs are progressions of spaces. As typographers, we control and manipulate these spaces.

Where type is (form) is equally important to where type isn’t (counterform). Consider the page of a book – is it black ink arranged on a white page, or a white page surrounding black ink?

The best way to truly understand this is to draw letterforms for yourself, paying close attention to the relationship of form and counterform that define the spaces.

Assignment
Each student will be assigned a word set in Adobe Garamond Pro. Study the forms and counterforms that define your word. You may wish to enlarge the letterforms to carefully examine the details.

Using an 18 x 24 inch pad of newsprint or other inexpensive paper, draw your assigned word as accurately as you can freehand. Use a rich black medium such as charcoal or black Conté crayon.

Draw your word as large as you can while still leaving a pleasing amount of white space around it. You will most likely have a few false starts.
 Do not through your sketches away, bring all of your work to class.

You may not use any rulers, protractors, french curves, triangles, projectors, tracing paper, or other tools to assist you in drawing your letters. This must be a freehand drawing.

Try to duplicate the exact shapes, proportion, curves, strokes, and all other details of the letterforms. Pay attention to how the curves transition into straight strokes, and how elements that appear perfectly flat or perfectly round are deceiving. Think back to your Foundation drawing classes. Draw what you see, not what you think you see.

Deliverables
At least one perfect drawing of your word.


Exercise 3: Kerning Workout
The terms kerning or tracking refer to adjusting the space between two or many letters. If letters in a typeface are spaced too uniformly, they make a pattern that doesn’t look uniform enough. What is mathematically even does not always look even optically.

In metal type, a kerned letter extends past the lead slug that supports
it, allowing two letters to sit more closely together. In the digital fonts used today, the space between letters is controlled by a table of built-in kerning pairs, which specify spaces between different letter combinations. Some fonts come with better kerning pairs than others. Most, however, need to be manually corrected – especially when working at large sizes. Always kern your titles and headlines!

Certain types of letters require special kerning attention:
— Letters whose forms angle outward, such as W, Y, V
— Letters that frame an open space, such as E, T, F, J, L, r
— Round letters, such as Q, O, D, G, C 


Assignment

In InDesign, set up a horizontal letter-size page.
Typeset your name in Title Case, UPPERCASE and lowercase:
— Matthew Carter
— MATTHEW CARTER
— matthew carter 


Left align your text (also known as ragged right).
 Set this page three times, each in a different typeface:
— Adobe Garamond Regular, 72 pt
— Didot Italic, 72 pt
— Futura Std Medium, 72 pt 


Manually kern all nine versions of your name striving for optical perfection. Observe how legibility is affected when letters are tracked too close together or too far apart. Be aware that uppercase, lowercase, and italic may require different amounts of overall letterspacing. Pay attention to the differences between each font’s kerning pairs. 


Deliverables 

Three high-quality prints output on letter-size paper at 100% scale.
Three names per sheet, one sheet per typeface.